Manchester City can earn a narrow 2-1 win over Leicester.
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Manchester City head to the King Power Stadium to take on Leicester this weekend as they aim to get back to winning ways.
The Foxes have had an eventful first half of the season. Steve Cooper was sacked with the team two points above the relegation zone. Ruud Van Nistelrooy was chosen to replace Cooper, and the results have been inconsistent since the Dutchman came in.
Leicester took the lead at Anfield midweek before succumbing to a 3-1 defeat. They now find themselves in the bottom three, thanks to Wolves’ recent wins. A home win against City would be a huge boost to the Foxes’ confidence.
Manchester City are the reigning champions of England, but their form has drastically declined since November. Pep Guardiola has never encountered a challenge like this in his managerial career. His team have secured just one win in their last 13 matches across all competitions.
The Citizens face a battle to make it into the top four and qualify for the Champions League. They are 7th coming into this round of fixtures, below both Bournemouth and Newcastle.
The probable lineup for Leicester in the “system of play.”
Stolarczyk; Justin, Coady, Vestergaard, Kristiansen; Winks, Soumare, El Khannouss; Mavidi, Ayew, Vardy
The probable lineup for Manchester City in the “system of play.”
Ortega; Lewis, Akanji, Simpson-Pusey, Gvardiol; Kovacic, De Bruyne, Silva; Grealish, Foden, Haaland
With Pep Guardiola struggling to find the remedy for City’s woes, we are backing the home side to avoid losing by more than one goal as the first of our Leicester vs Manchester City predictions.
City took the lead against Everton in their last match but had to settle for a 1-1 draw. They have now recorded just one win since being knocked out of the League Cup by Tottenham on 30 October. During that run, City averaged one fewer goal per game than their opponents.
Leicester showed grit against Liverpool, currently the best team in the country. They should put up a good fight against City and could even come away with some points.
With Erling Haaland struggling for form, Manchester City have to rely on goals from other sources, so we are banking on Josko Gvardiol to score this weekend.
Although a defender, the Croatian is given the freedom to push forward. His recent heat maps show that he is frequently involved in attacking areas, and he has already scored four goals this season.
Over the past year, Gvardiol has ranked in the top 1% of defenders across Europe’s top five leagues for non-penalty goals and xG. His most recent goal came in the Manchester Derby, and he is likely to have more opportunities here.
The last of our Leicester vs Manchester City predictions is for both teams to score in the match.
Pep Guardiola has struggled to fill the void in the City midfield with Rodri injured. As a result, his team are vulnerable to the counter-attack, and that trend should continue here. Both teams have scored in City’s last four league games, and they have kept just one clean sheet in their last nine.
Leicester have failed to score in just one of their nine home matches in the Premier League this season. However, they have only managed one clean sheet in those games, with their matches averaging 2.89 goals.
There is no quick fix for Manchester City, so it’ll be interesting to see if they can deliver a strong performance at the King Power Stadium. The club are expected to be busy in the January transfer window, but failure to earn all three points here could leave them even further away from the top four.